Field
The present invention is related to computer security, and more specifically to the control of computer program access.
Description of the Related Art
Over recent years, malware and productivity inhibitors have become a major problem across the internet. From both technical and user positions the categorization of a specific threat, as a virus, worm, spam, phish, spyware, adware, or the like, may becoming reduced in significance. The threat, no matter what it's referred to, may need to be stopped at all points of the computer system infrastructure, including laptop, desktop, server, gateway, network, PDA, mobile phone, and the like. Therefore a need exists for an improved threat management facility applied to the same set of technologies and capabilities for all threats.
Further, software has become so easy to install on computers that it has become very difficult to control what software is running on them or what applications have the ability to run on them. While quick downloads and simple installations of computer applications can make operation of new functionalities in the computer environment easy, new software installations can be problematic. In the corporate environment, IT managers are given the task to maintain security, equipment, and corporate policies and each of these tasks becomes increasingly more difficult as more software applications are loaded on to computer systems within the corporate domain. The corporation may want to control the types of software applications that are run on its network servers, client computers, and other computing facilities within its control. The corporation may also want to control the software applications and their versions for many reasons, such as for corporate policy reasons, legal reasons, user efficiency, network load control, common application usage, application license control, or the like.
Controlling the applications that are running on all of the computing facilities under the control of an IT manager is very difficult and there exists a need to improve this capability.